Dr Lydia Kearney discusses ‘Splitting’ in Borderline Personality Disorder for Glamour Magazine UK

The defense mechanism of “splitting” is commonly seen in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Dr Lydia Kearney was joined by Dr Audrey Tang to enlighten us.

Dr Lydia Kearney, Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Kent was featured in Glamour Magazine UK’s recent article to discuss the defense mechanism of “splitting” commonly seen in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Dr Lydia Kearney was joined alongside Dr Audrey Tang to share expert views on the matter.

In the article, individuals with BPD tend to ‘split’ when they go from idealising their romantic partner to seeing them as the worst person ever if they do a minor mistake. Splitting was said to be an ’emotional amplifier’ as splitting can make peple feel worse and exarcebate poor decision making and low mood.

Kearney also notes how splitting can happen to individuals without BPD, especially with those who suffer from issues like depression. Splitting was said to most likely occur under immense stress as individuals tend to see things as all good or all bad to make it easier to navigate through options and decide (even if these aren’t optimal or accurate decisions).

“If a BPD patient is currently idolising and idealising their romantic partner, the partner might do something really minor, like fail to reply to a text, which causes a ‘split’ – so the person with BPD goes from seeing their partner as perfect, to seeing them as the worst person ever.”

Kearney and Tang laid out a number of warning signs of splitting, as well as healthier coping mechanisms to try halt splitting when you feel it coming on

Read the full article here